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Benjamin Hallowell Carew
|death_date= |image=Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew by John Hayter.jpg |caption=by John HayterPortrait, National Portrait Gallery |birth_place = Probably Boston, Massachusetts |death_place = |residence = United Kingdom |allegiance= |serviceyears= |rank=Admiral of the Blue |branch= |commands= |unit= |battles=Battle of St. Kitts Battle of the Saintes Battle of Hyeres Battle of Cape St Vincent Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Battle of the Nile |awards=Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) Neapolitan Order of Saint Ferdinand and Merit|relations=Ann Inglefield }} Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew GCB, (born Benjamin Hallowell) (?1 January 1761 – 2 September 1834) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy. He was one of the select group of officers, referred to by Nelson as his "Band of Brothers", who served with him at the Battle of the Nile. Early years Although he is often identified as Canadian, Hallowell's place and exact date of birth have been the subject of dispute among researchers. He was probably born on 1 January 1761 in Boston, Massachusetts,Benjamin Hallowell Homestead on the Jamaica Plain Historical Society website where his British father, former naval captain Benjamin Hallowell (1723–1799), was Commissioner of the Board of Customs. His mother, Mary (Boylston) Hallowell, was the daughter of Thomas Boylston, and a first cousin of Susanna Boylston, the mother of the 2nd President of the United States, John Adams, and grandmother of the 6th President, John Quincy Adams. He was a brother of Ward Nicholas Boylston and a nephew of Governor Moses Gill. His father's job exposed Hallowell's Loyalist family to attacks as American revolutionary sentiment grew. In August 1765 the Hallowell house in Roxbury was ransacked by a mob and the family relocated to Jamaica PlainDrake, Samuel Adams: Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston, page 148. J. R. Osgood & Company, 1873. Published online by Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library 2005] and in September 1774 his father was pursued by a furious mob of 160 mounted men who had gathered to hear news of the resignation of other customs officials. The family left the country in March 1776, at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and their estates were confiscated. They stayed for a short time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then took a passage to England in July 1776. Educated in the private schools of England, through his father's connections with Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, Hallowell entered the Royal Navy at a slightly later age than was normal, receiving his promotion to lieutenant on 31 August 1781. Naval career Benjamin Hallowell's naval career spanned the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, and he took part in a number of important actions in all three. As a lieutenant in Admiral Lord Hood's fleet, he saw action in the Battles of St. Kitts and the Saintes in 1782. He continued on active service after the end of the war and was promoted to the rank of commander in about 1791. Abstracted from Captain A Crawford, RN, Reminiscences of a Naval Officer, During the Late War. With Sketches and Anecdotes of Distinguished Commanders. In Two Volumes. Embellished with Portraits of Admirals Sir Edward Owen and Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew. London, Colburn, 1851 Commissioned as a post-captain in August 1793, he and his ship took part in the evacuation following the Siege of Toulon in that year. He was involved in the Siege of Bastia under the command of Lord Hood, and then as a volunteer at the capture of Calvi, Corsica, in 1794 (in which Nelson lost the sight of his right eye); he was mentioned in despatches by Lord Hood for his part in this action, and was subsequently given command of . By 1795 he was in command of HMS Courageux, and took part with her in the Battle of Hyères. He was not aboard in December 1796 when the vessel was wrecked after an incident in the Bay of Gibraltar during bad weather. Her mooring cable parted and she was driven within range of Spanish shore batteries; Hallowell, ashore to sit at a court-martial, was denied permission to rejoin the ship and take her to safety. She was subsequently wrecked off Monte Hacho in high winds during her officers' attempts to move to a safer anchorage, with the loss of almost 500 lives.James 1837 Vol I pp 316-317 Following her loss, Hallowell served as a volunteer aboard during the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797), was commended to the Admiralty by Admiral Sir John Jervis for his actions during the battle.Several historians relate an anecdote concerning this. When Jervis, a stern and imposing figure, was told of the superior odds facing him, he expressed determination to attack no matter how strong the opposition. Hallowell, standing with Jervis on the deck of Victory, is said to have expressed loud approbation and thumped his commander-in-chief on the back in a startling display of familiarity (Crawford 1851). Subsequently, Hallowell received another command, , in which he took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797), where Nelson lost an arm.James 1837 Vol II 55 Nelson's coffin '' is destroyed at the Battle of the Nile. The ship in the centre, firing into L'Orient at close quarters, is Swiftsure, commanded by Hallowell. Painting by George Arnald (1763-1841).]] Hallowell is probably best known as the man who made Nelson a present of what would become his own coffin, after the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. Hallowell commanded , a 74-gun ship of the line, during the battle. Swiftsure engaged the French flagship L'Orient at close quarters and played a major role in her destruction. Some time later Hallowell sent Nelson a coffin Hallowell had ordered to be made from a salvaged piece of L'Orient's mainmast, with an accompanying note: Nelson is said to have been pleased with the gift, keeping it propped against the wall of his cabin for some time, behind the chair in which he sat for dinner, and taking it with him to his next command. After he was killed in 1805 during the Battle of Trafalgar, he was buried in Hallowell's coffin.James 1837 Vol IV 96 Hallowell himself, now in command of [[French ship Tigre (1793)|HMS Tigre]], missed the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson had sent Tigre, along with five others in his squadron, to Gibraltar for water and on convoy duty.James 1837 Volume IV 92 However his old command, Swiftsure, took part on the French side. She and her officers and crew, including Hallowell, had been captured in 1801 after a fight with a squadron of five French warships. Hallowell faced a court-martial over this incident when he was returned to England after a short time as a prisoner of war, but he was honorably acquitted of any failure of duty.James 1837 Vol III 94 Hallowell remained a serving naval officer after Nelson's death. He was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 1 August 1811; Rear-Admiral of the White in 1812; Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 12 August 1819; Vice-Admiral of the White on 19 July 1821; and Admiral of the Blue in 1830. Honours Hallowell was awarded the Neapolitan Order of Saint Ferdinand and Merit for his actions during the siege of Corsica, an honour also presented to Nelson. He was appointed a Colonel of Royal Marines on 31 July 1810, and was number 61 amongst those appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the restructuring of the Order on 2 January 1815, and promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) on 6 June 1831. Inheritance and change of name in later life In 1828, Sir Benjamin Hallowell succeeded to the estates of the Carew family of Beddington, Surrey, on the death of his cousin, who had herself inherited them from her brother-in-law. In accordance with the terms of her will, he assumed the Carew name and coat of arms, becoming known as Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew. He died on 2 September 1834. Hallowell-Carew married Ann Inglefield, daughter of John Nicholson Inglefield. They were the parents of Captain Charles Hallowell-Carew R.N., who married a daughter of Sir Alexander Maxwell, 2nd Bt., of Myrton Castle, Wigtownshire. In fiction *Hallowell appeared as a character in Dudley Pope's novel Ramage and the Drum Beat (1968). References Further reading *Elson, Bryan, Nelson's Yankee Captain: The Life of Boston Loyalist Sir Benjamin Hallowell (2008) ISBN 0-88780-751-8; ISBN 978-0-88780-751-0 *Laughton, J. K., ‘Carew, Sir Benjamin Hallowell (1760–1834)’, rev. Roger Morriss, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2007, External links *Portrait of Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew by John Hayter at the National Portrait Gallery in London *Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew's robes as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, displayed at the National Maritime Museum, London *[http://manuscripts.co.uk/stock/21311.HTM Manuscript letter from Sir Benjamin Hallowell to Captain Lempriere of HMS Trent, 1815] Category:1761 births Category:1834 deaths Category:Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War Category:Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:People from colonial Boston, Massachusetts Category:People from Croydon (London borough)